Captured Tracks’ noble quest to rescue forgotten indie gems from the mangled cassette wreckage of the 1980s continues: next month they release a collection of music by Bona Dish, entitled The Zaragoza Tapes: 1981-1982.

United by their love of the Velvets and the Supremes, the Hertfordshire four-piece got some radio attention from John Peel (they couldn’t have been more of a Peel band if they tried, and they probably did try), but they only released two cassettes in their short lifetime. Captured Tracks have compiled their entire recorded output on The Zaragoza Tapes.

Bona Dish’s avowedly DIY aesthetic was coupled with a genuine pop flair, and songs like ’8am’ stand comparison with the very best independent music of the era. In the words of Captured Tracks, the comp “[showcases] the zest and spontaneity that gripped the UK DIY scene of the time, standing up to their contemporaries like Television Personalities, The Homosexuals and Marine Girls. - www.factmag.com/

The lovely Captured Tracks people bring us yet more nuggets from the early 1980s with this fantastic re-issue from a band who originally resided in the rock and roll capital of England - Hertfordshire. Opener ‘8AM’ has all the attributes of any self respecting early ‘80s independent music, spindly guitars, robotic female vocals, an air of menace and simple drums that could easily be a drum machine.

The atmospheres recall early The Cure and Siouxie and The Banshees but ‘Sand’ is completely different, its bargain basement guitar strums and sweet female vocals sound like The Marine Girls,Tracey Thorn’s brilliant all-girl group. ‘Fractured Heart’ changes tack again with a more garagey sound like a miniature Cramps. It’s the more pastoral guitar pop that stands out for me. ‘Normal Day’ has bits of Raincoats here, a smidge of Marine Girls there and just a tad of Orange Juice, a brilliant shambling strummy slab of indie like your mum used to make. Ha! The closing monologue mentions Woolworths. ‘Susan Says’ is another piece of lovely honest to goodness indie pop with a repeating guitar figure and sweet innocent vocals.

Only ever released on cassette but played copiously by John Peel, the spirit and guitar sound of Josef Kis never far away, this is a must buy for any fan of the C81 brand of scratchy homemade indie (paging Brian, paging Brian). Comes with download code and heartwarming sleeve notes. Highly recommended - Norman Records

Bona Dish, Bona Dish EP (In Phaze, 1982; Captured Tracks, 2013)

Captured Tracks has reissued records by people with words like “nicely” and “wake” as part of their names, and both are very attractive words, although “dish” is taking it. It may not be as good as the still-untouched “bag,” but even if it wasn’t for the maybe-Hertfordshire quartet’s ability to label itself with such a lovely name, this former cassette by Bona Dish is simultaneously the catchiest and frumpiest sounding thing to get scratched onto vinyl 30 years after the fact by certain Brooklyn tastemakers.

For whatever’s anticipated with the revised version — like an extra song, badge, drop of information about the band, or something — the original Bona Dish has two consistently spindly and brushy scuttles on each side that are really OK backdrops for things like warming a can of soup and dropping your keys into a grate when it’s rainy. And Ms. Dish eye rolling lines like “My pleasures can increase when you are out of reach” are the most elegantly concise sneers since that Oscar Wilde play you’ve had laying about for the last year, like you’ve read it. Sweetie, we can see the dust—

Glossing over the complete lack of information about the band, it’s that use of “can” that really seems to color in what its members were doing. Forget about the particulars, Bona Dish’s prerogative kind of feels like they were catty, post-punk Realists — Courbet has his insistent A Burial at Ornans, and the Dishes have “Normal Day.” Who ever its lyrics are intended for, slipping that “can” in is so honest, subtle and plain that it’s the only part that matters. Never minding such fuss with words, Bona Dish, in or out of italics, is a cozy, intrigued stare at unremarkable moments, which tends to be most of them. Unless they’re the frustrating ones, but what’s really so abnormal about either?

Flatform - Quantum + Trento Symphonia + Movements of an Impossible Time + A Place to Come + Can Not Be Anything Against the Wind + 57.600 Seconds of Invisible Night and Light + Sunday 6th April, 11:42 a.m. + About zero + With Nature There Are no Special Effects, Only Consequences (f)

Ben Rivers - The Sky Trembles and the Earth is Afraid and the Two Eyes are not Brothers (f)

Cheryl Frances-Hoad - Glory Tree (m)

Thomas Adès - The Twenty-Fifth Hour (m)

Daníel Bjarnason - Over Light Earth + Processions + Solaris (m)

Dobrinka Tabakova - String Paths (m)

Jacek Sienkiewicz - Nomatter (m)

Veli-Matti Puumala - Anna Liisa (m)

Bill Douglas - Trilogy: My Childhood, My Ain Folk, My Way Home (f)

DIALECT - Gowanus Drifts (m)

Robert Enrico - Au coeur de la vie (f)

Kara-lis Coverdale & LXV - Sirens (m)

Uljana Wolf - i mean i dislike that fate that i was made to where (b)

Mempo Giardinelli - Sultry Moon (b)

Jean-Marie Straub - Dialogue d'ombres (f)

Klaus Hoffer - Among the Bieresch (b)

Maxim Biller - U glavi Brune Schulza (b)

Svend Åge Madsen - Days with Diam + Virtue & Vice in the Middle Time (b)